Prominent Texans call on Big 12 to stick together.

The Atlantic Coast Conference has received application letters from Pittsburgh and Syracuse to join the league, a move that would leave the Big East scrambling to replace two of its longest tenured members.

"I'm sure consideration will be very fast," Barron said. "I'll be surprised if it's not tomorrow (Sunday)."

If the move goes forward, Pittsburgh and Syracuse would become the fourth and fifth schools to leave the Big East for the ACC in the past decade.

A jump by Pittsburgh and Syracuse could lead to another dramatic shuffle in college athletics. Texas A&M already has announced its intention to join the Southeastern Conference, leaving the future of the

Big 12 in doubt. The board of regents at Oklahoma and Texas are meeting Monday to discuss the possibility of leaving that conference.

Four prominent Texans took out a full-page ad in the Sunday Dallas Morning News imploring Big 12 schools to "call a truce" and "bring order and sensibility to conversations" that could lead to the league's destruction.

McCombs attended Texas and its business school is named after him. Hardberger, White and McLane all graduated from Baylor, which has slowed A&M's move to the SEC with legal threats.

Before Saturday's Texas-UCLA game at the Rose Bowl, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said his league would not take "proactive steps" to expand beyond 12 teams, but that could change if other conferences expand first.

"I'd like to think over the last couple of years we've been at the forefront of changes in the college landscape," Scott said. "So if there are conferences moving beyond 12, our conference is obviously going to evaluate where the landscape's going, and where we want to be in the future, regardless of how nice of a position we're in today."

Scott reiterated any team joining the Pac-12 would have to be part of its current TV structure. But he said the league has a "great relationship" with ESPN - which operates the Longhorn Network - and has worked out "challenging things" with ESPN in the past.